GTA 6 reads Mature 17+ with In-Game Purchases

Grand Theft Auto VI now carries a final ESRB rating of Mature 17+ on both the PlayStation Store and the Xbox store. Both records read Rating Pending as recently as 30 September. Both were read again on 2 October and both have changed.

The descriptor list is the first description of this game’s content published by an American body: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Mature Humor, Nudity, Strong Language, Strong Sexual Content, and Use of Drugs and Alcohol. Until now the descriptor field on both storefronts was empty.

The more interesting change is one line both records have gained. Each now declares In-Game Purchases, and neither did before. Rockstar’s own description on the PlayStation listing calls Grand Theft Auto VI a single-player experience, and nothing first-party has ever said what there would be to buy in it. Neither record declares Users Interact, which is the flag for player to player contact, so on what the two platform holders publish today this is still a single-player game, now with spending declared in it. That changes one paragraph of our parents’ guide, which said neither storefront declared purchases, and the guide now carries a dated correction.

The ESRB’s own database still does not list the game. We searched it directly on 2 October: a search for Grand Theft Auto returns the whole back catalogue, and Grand Theft Auto V’s entry carries these same seven descriptors plus Users Interact, In-Game Purchases and a long rating summary. There is no entry for VI. So the rating is published by the two storefronts rather than by the body whose name is on it, and there is no rating date and no rating summary to read. ESRB runs two processes. A physical retail game is reviewed before release and gets a rating summary, the paragraph of plain description parents actually use. A digital game rated through IARC gets neither. Which of those produced this rating has still not been stated by anyone.

One caution worth stating plainly. Those seven descriptors are the same seven Grand Theft Auto V carries, so a storefront inheriting series metadata cannot be ruled out from the storefronts alone. Two things argue against it. The two records are maintained separately and both moved, and GTA V’s entry pairs In-Game Purchases with Users Interact where these carry only In-Game Purchases, which is what a genuinely separate single-player assignment would look like.

Still unknown: the rating date, whether a rating summary exists, which track produced the rating, and whether PEGI or USK have moved. Australia is still the only body with a rating published under its own name, MA 15+, with its own consumer advice.

Sources. Grand Theft Auto VI on the PlayStation Store · The game’s PlayStation Store page · Grand Theft Auto VI on the Xbox store · ESRB ratings search · ESRB ratings guide